MSI X99S XPower AC Motherboard Unveiled

MSI’s XPower and MPower motherboards have become extremely popular over the past couple of years. we loved the Z97 MPower board! MSI has just revealed their flagship X99S XPower AC motherboard and it looks quite impressive!

The MSI X99S XPower AC is of course part of MSI’s Overclocking Series of motherboards which are aimed at overclockers and enthusiasts alike. The picture that MSI released shows the board with ice on it meaning it is also aimed at LN2 overclockers. The X99S XPower AC will have the same black and yellow color scheme as other motherboards in MSI’s Overclocking Series and will come in the E-ATX form factor.

At the center of the board you will find the LGA 2011-3 socket that supports Intel’s upcoming Haswell-E HEDT processors. Power to the CPU comes by way of two 8pin EPS connectors. The MSI X79 Big Bang XPower II came with a 22 phase PWM, but given the space restrictions on these boards we should expect a 12 phase PWM here. The board itself will feature an 8-layer PCB, Military Class IV components which include solid state capacitors, Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Core Chokes and Dark Caps. The CPU socket is surrounded by four DDR4 DIMMs on each side.

The board will have five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots with ample room for 4-way SLI or CrossFire setups. There is also a single PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slot and a mSATA connector. For storage the board will have 10 SATA 6GB/s ports and two SATA Express port. We can also spot a right-angled USB 3.0 header.

There are several overclocking features on the board like the OC Genie button, Power On / Off and reset buttons, voltage and BCLK adjustment buttons, voltage check points, and a debug LED. The motherboard will feature large heatsinks on the power delivery components as well as the PCH. These heatsinks are interconnected with a large heatsink.

About 10 years of computer experience. Been messing around with electronics since I was 5, got into computers when I was in highschool, been modding them ever since then. Very interested in how things work and their design.